How Michigan Voters Can Repeal The GOP’s Anti-Union Powergrab

[ProSense]

How Michigan Voters Can Repeal The GOP’s Anti-Union Powergrab

By Ian Millhiser

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Anti-union lawmakers attached a budget appropriation to the bill in order to thwart efforts to repeal it by referendum — the Michigan Constitution provides that “[t]he power of referendum does not extend to acts making appropriations for state institutions or to meet deficiencies in state funds.” This is not the end of the story, however. Under that same constitution, Michigan voters may still restore the lost wages and collective bargaining power denied by this bill through a state ballot initiative:

The people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and to enact and reject laws, called the initiative, and the power to approve or reject laws enacted by the legislature, called the referendum. The power of initiative extends only to laws which the legislature may enact under this constitution. The power of referendum does not extend to acts making appropriations for state institutions or to meet deficiencies in state funds and must be invoked in the manner prescribed by law within 90 days following the final adjournment of the legislative session at which the law was enacted. To invoke the initiative or referendum, petitions signed by a number of registered electors, not less than eight percent for initiative and five percent for referendum of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last preceding general election at which a governor was elected shall be required.

No law as to which the power of referendum properly has been invoked shall be effective thereafter unless approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon at the next general election.

By attaching the appropriations provision to the anti-union bill, its supporters accomplished two things: they increased the number of signatures necessary to place it before the voters, and they guaranteed that, if enacted, it will be in effect at least until it can be repealed in the next general election. Nevertheless, Michigan voters are far from powerless. In the last Michigan gubernatorial election, voters cast a total of 3,226,088 votes. So workers and their allies will need to collect just under 260,000 signatures to place a repeal initiative on the ballot.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/11/1317131/how-michigan-voters-can-repeal-the-gops-anti-union-powergrab/

Michigan Gov. Snyder signs anti-union bills into law

by Laura Clawson

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said in a press conference early Tuesday evening that he has signed into law the two anti-union bills, affecting public and private sector workers, passed by the state House earlier in the day. Though Snyder has touted the new laws as pro-worker, he signed them privately, an act more in keeping with the view he had repeatedly stated right up until the final weeks before he joined Republican legislators in rushing to pass them: so-called "right to work" laws are divisive.

The Michigan laws contain verbatim language from an ALEC model bill and were heavily pushed by the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity and Amway billionaire Dick DeVos.

"Gov. Snyder showed his true colors today," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. "He’s a puppet of extreme donors, and he is willing to ignore and lie to his constituents. His action will undoubtedly please the Koch Brothers and corporate CEOs, but it will diminish the voice of every working man and woman in Michigan."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/11/1169062/-Michigan-Gov-Snyder-signs-anti-union-bills-into-law

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!!

[Cha]

3. Thank you, Pro Sense.. I've just been thinking.. now that this is

done by snyder how can it be Changed? And, it will be Changed.. just a matter of time. May this Backlash on the Kochs like they wish they never even thought of it.

The Michigan laws contain verbatim language from an ALEC model bill and were heavily pushed by the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity and Amway billionaire Dick DeVos.

[ProSense]

4. Yup. n/t